I recently spent a Saturday morning collecting signatures for the recall effort of Governor Scott Walker and Lieutenant Governor Rebecca Kleefisch. I wanted to share some observations from my experience and clear up some misconceptions.

The first thing to know is irregardless of your position on the recalls, they are going to happen. Recalls are written into the Constitution, but it is very hard to trigger an actual recall election. So hard in fact that republicans have attempted recalls of many elected officials in the past (Governor Doyle, Senators Feingold and Kohl, among others) only to fizzle due to lack of support.

Democracy is not a 10-minute-a-year process , it requires vigilance and attention 24/7, 365 days a year. Recall elections are an important part of this.

Once the recall petition signatures have been verified (and they will be verified), then the election process will begin.

Another misconception is that there will be massive fraud by the recall petitioners. That is an absolute fallacy. All signatures are being verified before ever being turned in and it is illegal to tamper with a recall petition. Mickey Mouse and Adolf Hitler have not and will not sign a recall petition.

Another important thing to keep in mind is that the people out collecting signatures are working for a cause they believe in, these people are your friends and neighbors. They deserve to be treated with respect, and civility, the same way community members who choose not to sign deserve it also.

Unfortunately that has not been happening. There have been many death threats to recall petitioners around the state (luckily none in Cottage Grove).

On my recent shift I was given many “democrabeeps” and thumbs up (solidarity my friends), many people who did not pay attention to us (I get it, I am busy also), a few people who gave us thumbs down (it’s great that you are involved in the process, I look forward to a civil debate during the election), a few flipped us off (is that your best argument?) and one person even called the police on us (that is cowardly and the police have better things to do).